Communication from a Human Rights Perspective: Responding to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Eastern and Southern Africa A Working Paper for use in HIV and AIDS Programmes

Abstract

In sub-Saharan Africa HIV/AIDS has proven to be the most challenging health and development issue of modern times. At the end of 2001 28.1 million people were infected with the virus almost exclusively through heterosexual sex (UNAIDS 2002). Many millions more have been left to cope with orphaned children sick or dying relatives worsened economic circumstances and severely reduced opportunities in life. There is no cure there is a long period between catching HIV and developing AIDS and the drug regimes required to manage it are costly and difficult to manage. Africas health systems designed with a bias towards primary care are finding it difficult to cope with the cost and complexity of treating AIDS especially in rural communities. And yet HIV/AIDS is more than a health problem. Its spread is related to poverty power relationships between men and women the availability and accessibility of basic services sexual customs and the evolution of traditional practices in modern society to name just a few of the factors that contribute to the pandemics magnitude in Africa. The socio-economic and political dimensions of HIV/AIDS determine how and where it is spread--and also how communities and individuals cope with it and adjust to its impact. However the response of governments and development agencies to the virus focuses on treatment from health-care facilities and prevention through the design and delivery of health education messages. (excerpt)